papers are the key to the character of current popular needs. They are conducted on strict business principles. Hence, they cover travel, literature, science, poetry, romance, politics, and religion. The quantity of poetry is small, its quality very often poor; and religion fares little, if any, better. Yet the churchgoing population, including ethical culturists, Jews, and Christians, is nearly fifty-seven millions, out of a total population of sixty-seven millions. If the public, the majority of which is, at least nominally, Christian, wanted more religious matter in the Sunday papers quantity and quality would soon meet the demand. This looks discouraging on the face of things. But it reveals the fact that the Church refuses to be taught in spiritual matters by secular specialists. We need not emphasize the magnificent opportunity of those 111,036 ministers and priests for the conveyance of truth, which never comes with such force as from a living, earnest man of profound and settled convictions.

The power of the press in educating and instructing is shared by the novel. From a small stream the English novel has spread out into a mighty river of literary and ethical influence. The writers of fiction numbered a handful at the beginning of the century. Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, Defoe, Sterne, and Addison, Johnson, Godwin, Walpole, Mrs. Southey, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Porter, Jane Austen, and Sir Walter Scott-there they all are! Who have been their successors? An army. There are seven thousand copyrighted books of American poetry in the national library at Washington. This is a small number compared with the array of works of fiction. Each story has probably produced some effect. Each has been an educator. Many continue to educate. There are books clothing ethical truth in fiction which not only exercise a present influence, but will affect future generations. Jane Eyre, for instance, represents a woman both pure and passionate-a type of character which challenged the incredulity of England. But the truth is generally enough conceded now. The logical and moral sequence following such a perception is a growing belief that passionate men can be as pure as women. Legitimate successors of Jane Eyre are, in practice, the White Cross movement and Dr. Parkhurst's crusade and, in literature, George Eliot's Mill on the Floss and the books of Madame

Sarah Grand. Maarten Maartens is a Dutch Hawthorne in laying bare the sins of the heart. Balzac has written a physiological and psychological compendium of humanity in his novels. Daudet's Sidonie shows the corruption of spirit creeping, like a green mold, over the virtue of a woman who marries for money and ambition. George Meredith, in Richard Feverel, preaches a weighty lesson to parents who overtrain their children, and, in One of Our Conquerors, lays bare, as only the poet or novelist can without offense, the almost unmentionable frictions of married life.

The didactic novel is here to stay. The ethical voice of the people has been heard, never again to be silenced, in the newspaper and magazine, as well as in the novel. But, rising far above them in the majesty of his office, in the sacredness of his message, in the strength of his influence, should stand the preacher, because "the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." But the preacher of to-day is only one of many teachers. He must, therefore, be widely read, broadly cultured, a leader in literature and ethics, an authority, because of personal research, on the Bible. His sermons must have the literary stamp and be imbued with the spirituality of a Bunyan or a Herbert. While loyal to his Church, he must be broadly unsectarian in spirit. In an age of fluent and correct speaking, he must have the training of an orator; in an age of material splendor and achievement, his whole nature must be attuned to the things which are unseen; in an age of sophistry, he must be ingenuous; in an age of greed, he must be unselfish; in an age of good works, he must be the embodiment of faith and works; in an age of self-seeking, he must love his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself.

May Harriott bouis,

ART. IX.-EARLIER CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN INDIA.

It was a strange incident, and a matter of pleasing wonder to Vasco da Gama-not only the discovery, in 1498, of India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, but the finding of fellowChristians on that first voyage in that land of intense heathenism and deep moral darkness. For fourteen centuries, almost unknown and uncared for, they had lived and toiled and worshiped the true and living God. It would be interesting to know something more of their history during all these years, surrounded, as they were, by the most bitter opposition, at times when strife was common and the insolent Brahman reigned supreme. Amid it all, we are sure, they maintained. the name, and in some degree kept the faith, of the Christian Church. The spread of Christianity and the enlightenment which will follow may give us more of the history of that early movement. How we would like to delve into the records of those early times and learn more of the struggles and triumphs of the apostolic days in India!

As to their origin, these Christians affirm that they are the descendants of the converts who were brought to Christ under the preaching of Thomas the apostle. This explanation is generally accepted. Here, no doubt, Thomas found a congenial field for the exercise of the faith that had been confirmed by the Saviour's coinmand to thrust his hand into the wounded, sacred side. The Saviour knew the mission the Holy Spirit would induce him to undertake. An evidence of sense, sight, and spirit was needful for such a gigantic undertaking. Think of Thomas, so far away from his associates, alone, laboring among a people so different in habit, thought, and daily life! His zeal was untiring, and his success in winning converts must have been great. He aroused the anger and hatred of opponents, and was cruelly martyred near Cape Comorin.

All along the Malabar Coast, as far north as Goa, and along the Coromandel Coast, as far north as Madras, are evidences of the influence of this devoted martyr. Probably in the first centuries of the Christian era this whole coast line was dotted with little Christian churches, and the influence of the Gospel was probably much greater than in after years. Even the gospel of 29-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XI.

Matthew, said to have been found here in the second century, may have been brought by this same devoted pioneer, as it was the only New Testament Scripture written that he could have procured before he left Jerusalem. After the death of Thomas, no doubt, persecutions and great troubles arose. Strife and bitter contentions, here as elsewhere, pervailed, and decadence followed. Then, too, Hindooism revived and the proud Brahman ruled. But the seed so patiently and diligently planted was never entirely destroyed. During all these years these Christians of India have endeavored to keep in touch with the Eastern Church, of which they form a part. At present they are presided over by a patriarch, consecrated at Antioch, and number about three hundred thousand communicants. Before the time of Xavier their bishops were sent to them from Assyria and Persia.

In this part of India there are depositories of ancient manuscripts, shut up in old Sanskrit colleges presided over exclusively by the Brahmans, who zealously guard them, not permitting even the presence of one of another caste to enter the sacred inclosures. No European has ever yet been permitted to look upon them. Thus has it been in all other parts of India. But light is dawning, and the time is not far distant when the learned missionary shall enter thèse holy precincts and be allowed to search into the mysteries and learning of the past ages. Not long ago a Christian missionary was invited to the principalship of the Sanskrit college at Poona, formerly the most conservative Brahman city in all India. So, too, the Brahmans of provinces further south will yield their accumu lated treasures of learning and history to the same devotion, energy, and piety, and these old manuscripts will be exposed to the scrutiny of Western scholarship; and from them we may learn much of the history of the triumphs of this part of the Church of Christ. When the morning breaks all over this beautiful land riches untold will be revealed.

Vasco da Gama carried back to Portugal and to the Western Church the first report of this remarkable people. While the Portuguese were in power in India every inducement was used to detach them from the Eastern Church and bring them under the Church of Rome. Their bishops were forbidden to come to Romish priests were sent among them,

them from Assyria.

and even the Inquisition was put in force at Goa. Some success attended these exertions. But nothing very great was accomplished until the enthusiastic and somewhat fanatical Xavier, clothed with almost imperial power, was sent to them by the king of Portugal in 1541. For six years the indefatigable Xavier toiled among them with the most untiring zeal. But they proved so obdurate and clung so firmly to their own hierarchy that this almost irrepressible Jesuit became discouraged, and left them for what he thought would prove a more promising field-the heathen lands of China and Japan. The Roman Catholics in and about Goa who were proselyted from these Assyrian Christians number about one hundred and fifty thousand. When the Dutch took possession of Malabar the Romish priests and the Jesuits became unbearable on account of their intriguing and troublesome character, and were soon ordered out of the country. They were thus compelled to confine their labors almost wholly to the small province of Goa, which is still ruled over by a viceroy sent from Portugal. From this time to the present these Christians have enjoyed uninterrupted peace.

The honor is due to King Frederick IV, of Denmark, of establishing the first Protestant mission in India. The condition of these far-off Christians excited his warm sympathy. In 1705 the learned and devoted Ziegenbalg and his companion Plutschau were selected, and the next year, after a voyage of eight months, landed at Tranquebar, which at the time was a Danish settlement. Difficulties almost insurmountable met these devoted men from the first. By the same ship which carried the missionaries secret instructions to the governor were sent by the Danish East India Company, to place every possible impediment in their way. He obeyed his instructions to the letter. But Ziegenbalg was born for this hour. Difficulties hindered, but did not overcome him. Think of these two lone men, as they stood on the shore of that far-off land the night of their landing, withont shelter, without companions, without sympathy, without friends, left to shift for themselves! But, undaunted, they commenced their God-given work, and God soon raised up friends in their behalf. One of the most difficult of the Indian languages was to be learned. Without a grammar or even an alphabet, Ziegenbalg commenced the study of Tamil